The team on Friday announced that the third-year safety lost his appeal and has been suspended six games without pay for violating the league's substance-abuse policy.

After serving a four-game ban in 2012 for performance-enhancing drug use, Hill missed the first four games of the 2013 campaign for violating the NFL's substance-abuse policy.

Highly touted but undrafted out of Florida because of character concerns, Hill is eligible to rejoin New York's active roster on Monday, October 13 after the team's Week 6 tilt with the Eagles. Tom Rock of Newsday tweeted Friday that he didn't expect Big Blue to activate Hill this season after a third strike in as many years.

Rock noted that the organization has "put a lot of time and energy" into keeping Hill clean. Last month, the New York Daily News reported that the Giants were "livid" at Hill's off-the-field adventures while hinting that the safety was likely "done" in Gotham.

When he resurfaced from last season's ban, Hill surged down the stretch for New York's defense, earning a spot on Chris Wesseling's "Making the Leap" list.

The Giants drafted safety Nat Berhe in the fifth round and added first-year defender C.J. Barnett at the position this offseason, but the pressure now falls on veteran Stevie Brown to fill the void left by Hill's latest indiscretion.